Canada’s Lanni Marchant finishes in the top-20 at world half-marathon champs
Canada finished sixth in the women's team standings led by Lanni Marchant's top-20 placing at the IAAF world half-marathon championships on Saturday.
All three Canadian women placed in the top-35 at the IAAF world half-marathon championships on a rainy Saturday in Cardiff, Wales to secure a sixth place team finish. Olympian Reid Coolsaet, despite having a faulty chip which omitted him from live tracking on the initial results page, was the top Canadian male on Saturday finishing 38th.
RELATED: Lanni Marchant, Trevor Hofbauer lead Canada to NACAC 10K Road Cup.
Lanni Marchant and Tarah Korir both finished in the top-25 on Saturday with Marchant, the Canadian record holder, running 1:11:26 for 20th and Korir setting a lifetime best of 1:12:04 over the 21.1K distance. Laura Batterink set a season best and helped secure Canada’s place in the team standings.
It was a Kenyan sweep in the women’s event as Peres Jepchirchir led a 1-2-3 finish for the African nation.
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In the men’s race, Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor took a hard fall (see below tweet) at the start line but paced himself through the pack to the leaders before the 5K mark. He and teammate Bedan Karoki went 1-2 for Kenya in 59:10 and 59:36 with Kamworor running a remarkable race to defend his world title from two years ago in Copenhagen.
Not the ideal start for Geoffrey Kamworor….
He's leading now though! pic.twitter.com/Od6C1bH3P7— Cardiff World Half (@Cardiff2016) March 26, 2016
Local favourite and two-time Olympic champion Mo Farah, who trains with Canadian Cam Levins, was third in 59:59.
Back with the women's race they've passed through Cardiff Bay and are heading for Roath Lake #Cardiff2016 pic.twitter.com/YimbU4YJg1
— Cardiff World Half (@Cardiff2016) March 26, 2016
Rob Watson and Reid Coolsaet ran together in the early stages crossing 5K in 14:54 before a gap began to grow around the 10K mark. Coolsaet, a resident of Guelph, Ont., spent much of the winter in Kenya training at altitude.
Well that sure was interesting. Marathon legs + ambitious goals + rain & wind = humble pie. Bloody hell, great experience none the less.
— Rob Watson (@robbiedxc) March 26, 2016
Results from all six Canadians can be found below:
Canadian women
Lanni Marchant – 1:11:26 (20th)
Tarah Korir – 1:12:04 (PB, 23rd)
Laura Batterink – 1:13:24 (34th)
Canadian men
Reid Coolsaet – 1:04:56 (38th)
Rob Watson – 1:06:15 (46th)
Brandon Lord – 1:11:00 (73rd)
The Canadian women warmed up outside the Cardiff Castle prior to Saturday’s race.
Watson will be staying overseas for the next month in preparation for the London Marathon in April in what will be his final bid to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio. He needs to run 2:12:50 or faster to hit standard.
Canadian Running got a chance to catch up with Coolsaet before the race to discuss his training that led up to Saturday’s race. See the below video:
Full results for the event can be found here.
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